By CHIEDU UCHE OKOYE

Nigeria’s underdevelopment is attributed to the culture of corruption, which pervades the entire country. Is she not blessed with abundant human and material resources? Doesn’t she have large arable land? And is Nigeria not a country that has many waters (rivers, lakes, ponds, and rivulets), and equable weather conditions? A country that possesses the aforementioned things ought to be a developed nation-state.

But the obverse obtains in our polity. Why? Over the years, our successive political leaders have continued to deepen our egregious and despicable culture of corruption, which is the cankerworm that is destroying our country’s moral fabric and stultifying our national development. And Nigerians from different ethnic and religious backgrounds, who are not occupying political offices, have embraced the culture of corruption that prevails in our country.

Consequently, every system of doing things in Nigeria has been compromised and corrupted. For example, in today’s Nigeria, educational certificates, ranging from FSLCs to university degrees, can be secured through underhand and corrupt means. And while our judges accept financial inducement so as to pervert the course of justice, our politicians rig electoral polls to access political power at different governmental strata.

Again, our politicians, who perceive their occupation of political offices as opportunities to become rich by dipping their hands Into our collective financial tills, have caused the ruination of our national economy. They are wont to divert public funds earmarked for the execution of projects into their private bank accounts. The trial, conviction, and imprisonment of Joshua Dariye and Rev. Jolly Nyame, who are former governors in Nigeria, are proofs that corruption has been encumbering our national development. That Nigeria is hobbled by official corruption is beyond question; and it is an incontrovertible fact.

But sadly, and incredibly, too, parents, who ought to provide the moral compass for their children and wards, are socializing and initiating them into the culture of corruption. When parents hire surrogate candidates to sit such examinations as SSCE and NECO for their impressionable children, they are socializing and initiating them into the culture of corruption. Are the personalities of human beings not formed during their formative years?

Now, Mr. Peter Obi, the NDC presidential candidate for the 2027 presidential election is riding on the crest and coat tail of his possession of probity to wrest power from President Bola Tinubu. But would Mr. Peter Obi, who is believed to be incorruptible and morally upright, be able to extirpate corruption in Nigeria if he became the president of Nigeria in 2027? We have no doubt that he is a man of probity, who is well-intentioned. But freeing Nigeria from the chokehold of corruption is an arduous task that requires the collective efforts of millions of Nigerians.

If he became the president of Nigeria in 2027, he would be surrounded by party members, who do not share his philosophy of life and political ideologies. Most of his political acolytes and supporters are hypocritical and sycophantic politicians, who are set in their evil and duplicitous ways. So Mr. Peter Obi and they would work at cross-purposes. Their working at cross-purposes would undermine his efforts at cleaning our country’s Augean stable.

But Nigeria is not past redemption. The panacea to the culture of corruption, which causes our country’s economic strangulation, technological underdevelopment, and infrastructural rot and deficit, is effecting moral regeneration among us. The agents of socialization, which are family, religion, and school, should be used in reforming the youths’ characters.

In this regard, parents should inculcate good morals into their children instead of socializing them into the culture of corruption. They should adopt this biblical saying in raising their children: spare the rod and spoil the child. And the mosques and churches should preach messages that border on holiness, chasteness, faithfulness, honesty, perseverance, and love. Such messages would mould their personalities and transform them to morally-upright and god-fearing people.

When an army of patriotic, morally-upright, and well-adjusted young people are raised in Nigeria, Mr. Peter Obi, who is honest and well-intentioned, could deploy them in the arduous task of revolutionizing Nigeria and nation-building if he became the president of the country.

But without effecting moral regeneration among us so as to raise a young demographic of patriotic, morally-upright, and god-fearing Nigerians, Nigeria will remain hobbled by corruption. And economic, technological, and infrastructural development will continue to elude us. As a result, the eradication of corruption in our country will remain a mirage.

•Chiedu Uche Okoye, a civil servant, poet and public intellectual, writes from Uruowulu-Obosi, Anambra State.

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